What Almost Could Have Been
by The Night Ninja
Summary: What if back in season one Zane took pity on the fact that Lloyd basically had no home. Going behind the backs of his sensei and brothers Zane adopts Lloyd. How much will this affect both the team and ninjago and more importantly, the final battle.
1. Taking Action

**hello everyone so I've been toying with this idea for a while and rest assured i will update my other stories but I just wanted to get this up before I wrote it entirely in my head.**

Zane looked at Lloyd just hanging there by his hood and watched his brothers walk away before making his decision. He got Lloyd down from the roof and grabbed his arm

"Where are you taking me?' asked Lloyd sounding scared

"Listen Lloyd, I'm an orphan myself, and due to the absence of your father and the fact that I can't see anyone who had a decent mother acting the way you do I can venture a guess that you are an orphan as well, you are young and i don't want anyone to go through what I have so I'm adopting you." said Zane

"I don't want to be adopted by a ninja" said lloyd stubbornly

"Would it help to tell you that i am going behind the other ninja's back by doing this?" smirked Zane. The deviousness of this caused Lloyd to smile as they walked to city hall. The adoption went through without a hitch, the fact that Lloyd's mother hadn't been present for years and basically abandoned him coupled with the fact that lloyd's father was an evil villain lost both of them parental rights over Lloyd.

"Wait so what do I call you?" asked Lloyd, he had always called Garmadon Dad but now Garmadon was no longer legally his father he was confused.

"You can call me whatever you want" said Zane

"Ok whatever you want" said lloyd playfully

"Very funny" said Zane ruffling Lloyd's hair

"I'll just call you dad, it's not like my old dad cared enough to take me with him" said Lloyd. Zane pulled Lloyd into a hug. Lloyd was hesitant at first, it had been years since anyone had hugged him but he eventually hugged Zane back.

"Come on let's go home" said Zane noticing how tired Lloyd was. They hopped onto shard and took off, lloyd clinging to Zane as his fear of heights took over. Zane was forming a mental plan of how to sneak Lloyd into the monastery and hide him. He looked at shard who was a very smart dragon and could see that she knew what he was thinking and nodded her head

"Now Lloyd for the first few days I'm going to need you to bunk with shard in the dragon stables, she will keep you warm and protect you while I talk to Wu about you staying with us, but don't worry, I'll bring you food every day then after training you and i can do whatever you want" said Zane knowing he had to put an incentive into the deal

"Ok" said Lloyd

"Don't worry, there are nights when I sleep in the dragon pens, mostly because Jay snores quite a bit" said Zane with a smile making Lloyd laugh


	2. Asking

**Hello I just thought I'd get chapter 2 up before I get busy, the chapter will get longer but if there is any specific activity you want Lloyd and Zane to do together just let me know**

Zane walked into the monastery and knocked on sensei's door

"Sensei?" called Zane

"Come in" said Wu. Zane entered the room

"What did you want to see me about?" asked Wu

"I'm sure the others told you that we faced Garmadon's son today and well In short i adopted him" said Zane. Wu spit out the sip of tea he just took

"WHAT!" exclaimed Wu

"Lloyd is now my son" said Zane. Wu set the tea cup down

"May I ask why you took this action?" asked Wu

"I'm an orphan, i didn't want to see another child be refused a home because of who his father was or that his mother abandon him at a school for bad boys, I saw a way to help him and I took it" said Zane

"Where is Lloyd?" asked Wu

"Shard is watching him for me, the other ninja don't really like him and i didn't want him coming here to cause a commotion" said Zane

"Very well, he may stay here with you in your room but next time ask me before you do something drastic" said Wu

"Thank you sensei" said Zane walking out. He went to the stables and saw that Lloyd was laying on Shard's foreleg as the large dragon had her wing wrapped around the boy. Zane smiled and shook Lloyd awake

"Come one Lloyd, you and i are going shopping, you need clothes toys books and a proper bed, sensei said you can stay in the monastery but you have to remain in my room unless you are with me" said Zane

"Ok!" said Lloyd happily scrambling up onto shard's saddle


	3. Shopping

**Adorable fluff, thats all I have to say**

Zane and Lloyd walked into the largest toy store in ninjago and Lloyd's eyes lit up with joy.

"You mean we can actually buy stuff here?" asked Lloyd

"Pick out three stuffed toys, any three interlocking brick sets you want, and anything else you want under 300 dollars total" smiled Zane. Lloyd took off with the shopping cart, Zane following behind at a more sedate pace with his own cart, placing video game systems and other things into the cart. 15 minutes later they arrived at the checkout, the total of Lloyd's items only came to 150 dollars.

"Lloyd you know you can get more stuff" said Zane

"I ran out of room in the cart" said Lloyd. Zane laughed. The next store was a candy store

"Alright get whatever you want under 200" said Zane. Once again Lloyd took off while Zane made some phone calls to order a bed and get Lloyd set up in a school a dentist and a doctor. Lloyd came back and Zane paid for the items, basically one of everything except licorice.

"Now Lloyd, I don't want you eating all this at once, these are for special occasions and maybe if you prank Jay really good" smiled Zane. The next stop was a clothing store and Zane was thanking his lucky stars that he had saved up a lot of money over the years doing odd jobs. After buying at least seven outfits, new shoes and winter attire they went home. Somehow managing to avoid the ninja, the two of them snuck into Zane's room and Zane started setting things up

"Dad?" asked Lloyd sitting on the bed

"What is it son?" asked Zane

"Thank you for doing all this, I've never had anyone be so nice to me" said Lloyd. Zane hugged him

"You're welcome my son" said Zane. Lloyd looked exhausted so Zane tucked the boy into bed and read him a bedtime story "The little dragon that could". He kissed Lloyd's forehead goodnight and walked out of the room, although not before he heard a small sound

"Love you dad" said Lloyd. Zane smiled

"I love you too,son" said Zane turning off the light.


	4. Nightmare

**Hello everyone I must say that I love waking up in the mornings to multiple reviews of my stories, it fills be with joy right before the six hour hell of high school. But enough with my life, I now present a fluffy chapter that foreshadows a few things and an overarching theme. The first three people who spot what I'm foreshadowing and the overarching theme will get exclusive mentions as background characters in the story.**

Zane was sleeping peacefully, Lloyd was on a temporary mattress until his bed arrived. Zane had had a vision of the monastery burning sometime in the near future so he coated the inside walls of his bedroom with Ice. It didn't affect the room's temperature but it added flame resistance. Suddenly Lloyd woke up sitting up straight in bed sweating. He looked at the bigger bed and saw Zane. Doing what any young child would do after a nightmare, he went over to Zane and woke him up.

"What's wrong Lloyd?" asked Zane concerned as the young boy burrowed his face into Zane's chest crying "shhshsh, It's ok Lloyd, just tell me what's wrong" soothed Zane

"I had a nightmare about a big snake and you were hurt and… and" Lloyd sobbed and Zane hugged him tighter

"It's ok Lloyd it's ok, I'm not going anywhere" soothed Zane

"Can I stay with you the rest of the night?" asked Lloyd, sounding like the small child he was

"Of course you can" said Zane pulling the blanket over them both. Zane made sure lloyd was asleep before he himself went back to sleep. The next morning Zane woke up before lloyd hearing sensei banging on the door. Zane sighed this had been one crazy past few days. He set some of Lloyd's clothes out with some orange juice and a bowl of some sugary cereal and wrote a note

 _Lloyd_

 _I have to train today but will be back in here to bring you meals and play a few video games with you. Please try to keep yourself entertained for the day and stay out of trouble, you start school tomorrow and i don't want you getting hurt or worse trying to sneak around the house._

 _-Love Dad_

When Lloyd woke up he saw the stuff and saw that there was a fighter game set up on the tv for him to play. He smiled and got dressed before eating the cereal and sitting down on his new beanbag chair to play the game before finding the stash off cookie and milk in the mini fridge under the bed 'I have the best dad in the world' thought Lloyd leaning back to get more comfortable. A few hours went by before he felt someone sit on the edge of the bean bag.

"I hope you haven't filled up on cookies because I brought you a blt on rye with some potato chips and a soda" said Zane

"How did you know that was my favorite sandwich?" asked lloyd accepting the plate and can

"I woke up and you were talking about it in your sleep, you seemed to be dreaming about being on a cooking show" said Zane, lloyd blushed a bit with embarrassment at being caught talking in his sleep

"I've always wanted to learn how to cook and how to fight" said Lloyd

"Well once i get the other ninja on board with you staying here I can teach you how took cook and i can train you to become a ninja" said Zane with a smile as Lloyd bit into the sandwich

"Really?" asked Lloyd with his mouth full

"Only if you want to" said Zane

"I'd love to, thanks dad" said Lloyd eagerly

"You're welcome kiddo" said Zane affectionately ruffling Lloyd's hair

"Now, can you help me beat this level?" asked Lloyd, Zane laughed

"Sure son"


	5. School

**Hello Internet welcome to the cutest fanfic ever, so far only one person has predicted what one of the future chapters shall contain, two slots remain, if you think you know what future chapters will contain based on the clues in chapter for review or PM me.**

Lloyd woke up the next morning, his bed had arrived yesterday afternoon and was foot end to foot end with Zane's, he leaped out of bed and put on the clothes his dad had laid out the night before. It was a nice pair of blue jeans with a white and green striped t-shirt and a black hoodie. He put on his brand new wheeled sneakers. Zane was still sleeping and the sun hadn't even risen but Lloyd was so excited to go to a school with normal kids that he didn't mind waking up super early, They had bought all his new school supplies yesterday and he had a cool new dragon backpack filled with pencils and notebooks and binders,pens, paper and folders. He plopped down in front of the tv and turned on the cartoon channel, making sure to keep the volume low so as not to wake Zane up. He got a bowl of sugar frosted marshmallow balls and started to watch a superhero cartoon, Adolescent Genetically Modified Samurai Lizards, he honestly couldn't imagine what his life would be like if Zane hadn't adopted him. At seven o'clock Lloyd turned off the TV and headed to the bus stop.

 **Later that day**

Lloyd stepped off the bus and headed into the room through the door Zane had installed. Zane was waiting for him

"Hey buddy how was school?" asked Zane with a smile as Lloyd hugged him

"It was great, everyone is way nicer than they were at darkleys and I made three new friends" exclaimed Lloyd

"That's great Son, now quick question, why didn't you wake me up so I could see you off hmm?" asked Zane raising his eyebrow

"Sorry, I was just so excited, and you need to fill out this permission slip, we're going on a field trip to the glacier barrens so we can go to the Ice Zoo" exclaimed Lloyd

"Of course I'll sign it" said Zane grabbing a pen

"They also need more chaperons, could you please?" asked Lloyd giving Zane the cute eyes

"I wish I could kiddo but Wu is doubling the training regimen with Garmadon a possible threat" said Zane

"Ok" said Lloyd sadly

"Tell you what, once Garmadon is defeated you and I will go to that Zoo just the two of us" said Zane hugging Lloyd

"OK" said Lloyd happily


	6. The Dare

**Two slots still remain but EntityEndDragon, correctly predicted the future devourer attack, look for her in this chapter and chapters to come.**

It had been a month since lloyd had started school and the class was in the glacier barrens on their field trip.

"Hey Lloyd I dare you to go see what's in that hole over there" said Jake, the class bully

"No way" said Lloyd

"Go in there or I take your lunch money for the next month" said Jake

"Fine" grumbled Lloyd walking over the the hole, and predictably falling in. He was met by a blue snake

"Who are you child?" asked the snake

"I'm Lloyd Julien, son of the white ninja" said lloyd

 **And episode plays out like normal for the next five minutes**

Lloyd climbed out of the hole, knowing he now had an army at his disposal to get revenge on Jake

"Lloyd are you alright you were gone for like ten minutes?" asked Entity, his best friend who normally went by the name Dragon.

"Yeah I'm fine, I just discovered a way to get back at Jake" said Lloyd

"Are you sure because I can always just punch his lights out" said Entity forming a fist and shaking it at Jake who's back was turned to a teacher who was scolding him for wandering off. Lloyd couldn't wait to tell his dad about the veritable army at his command.


	7. Calm before the storm

**Two spots remain, spot whats coming in chapter 8 and the over arching theme, for a chance to have your user name cameo as a background character.**

Lloyd walked off the bus and into the room

"Hi dad" said Lloyd hugging Zane

"Lloyd how did you get that bruise on your cheek?" asked Zane concerned

"Oh I kind of fell into a hole" said Lloyd

"And why didn't the teachers call me?" asked Zane

"It's no big deal dad" said Lloyd

"Lloyd, it is a big deal, especially because I can TELL that that bruise was from being hit not from falling" said Zane

"Fine, this kid Jake at school has been picking on me and everyone else for a while and told me that if I didn't go into this hole he'd take my lunch money for the next month" said Lloyd

"Why didn't you tell me? Lloyd I used to be bullied when i was younger I could have helped" said Zane pulling Lloyd into a hug

"Dad I can deal with him, he hit me on the bus ride home and my friend entity put him in an arm bar smashing his head into the seat" said Lloyd

"I'm going to your school tomorrow to talk about this situation, now you said he made you go into a hole, what was in there?" said Zane

"Just a bunch of weird snake guys who said they'll help me deal with Jake" said Lloyd

"Lloyd those are the serpentine, you just set them free" said Zane

"But they're under my control, the first thing they are doing right now is getting me back all the lunch money jake took from me" said Lloyd

"Lloyd you have to stop this immediately, people could get hurt" said Zane

"Fine, I'll just make them build a tree house that I'll never use" said Lloyd, Zane knew that he needed to lead the ninja to defeat the hypnobrai but not cluing them into the fact that Lloyd was his son now was going to be hard

"Do you think you can take their staff away from them I've been reading up on them lately and should anyone become hypnotized we need a way to cure them" said Zane

"I'll try" said Lloyd

"That's my boy, but please next time, just tell a teacher if someone dares you to do something dangerous, and let me deal with the repercussions" said Zane

"Alright dad" said Lloyd


	8. Homes

**So I'm not dead, but I am going to establish some things, my updates in the Ninjago fandom are going to be very sparse until I catch up to the current seasons which might not happen until the show's series finale. But the only stories I will be updating in this fandom in the meantime are ones that do not follow canon like this one and Ninja quilt and a few others but those updates might only come once every so often and not nearly as often as my Outsiders stories. None of my stories are abandoned, just on indefinite hiatus.**

The monastery was burning around them Lloyd was hiding in the corner of the last section still standing, Zane's room. The Ice coated interior had withstood the flames and now shard was putting out the rest of the fire.

"IF YOU HADN'T FOLLOWED THAT SILLY BIRD NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED" shouted Kai. The ninja were all yelling at Zane, Lloyd knew better than to show himself now, even if he didn't like how the ninja were treating his dad, the only person who ever cared about him. Lloyd looked at all the packed suitcases in the room, Zane had found a tiny apartment in New Ninjago city for the two of them to live and had moved a lot of their stuff there that morning it was only suitcases left now. Lloyd beckoned shard over to the slowly melting room and loaded the suitcases quietly onto her saddle. Mere moments Later Zane got on, seeing Lloyd and the rest of their stuff he quickly had shard take off. Lloyd noticed tears starting to fall from Zane's eyes so he hugged the white ninja.

"Where are we going now?" asked Lloyd softly

"We're finding a new place for the ninja to live then heading to our apartment," said Zane

"This is my fault, I should never have taken that dare" whimpered Lloyd. Zane landed shard and turned around to pull Lloyd close to him.

"It's not your fault Lloyd, you're just a kid caught in this battle of good and evil, sensei hasn't been very helpful with preparing any of us for what we might face and I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to protect you once Garmadon comes back," said Zane

"You could teach me how to defend myself, that way I can at least protect myself until you can get to me," said Lloyd

"Are you sure? Lloyd your still a kid, I don't want to take any of your childhood away from you" said Zane

"You already gave me more of a childhood than I ever would have had at Darkley's or with Garmadon, you took me in and gave me a home, also plenty of kids take martial arts as an after-school activity, is there really any difference?" asked Lloyd

"I guess not," said Zane

"Besides, it'll be a fun thing for us to be able to do together," said Lloyd happily. Over the past month Zane had noticed Lloyd was much more mature when he needed to be but was also just the right amount of childishness he should be, Lloyd was a kindhearted little boy who just wanted to belong to a family and now that he had a loving parent in his life his true personality shown like a beacon. They sat together for a few minutes before Lloyd saw something off in the distance

"Dad, there's a big ship over there," said Lloyd breaking the silence. Zane turned around and saw the large wooden pirate ship. The two of them went to investigate.

"Lloyd, I think we just found the potential new home for the ninja, I'm going to bring you to our apartment to unpack our stuff then I'm going to bring the ninja to this ship, I'll be at the apartment later tonight, you have school in the morning so I want you in bed by 9 but I should be back by seven with dinner, If I'm not there's a 50 in one of my pillowcases and a take-out menu in the dresser," said Zane

"Ok"

"Remember our secret knock, only open the door for me or the take out delivery person," said Zane sternly

"And Lock the windows, I know," said Lloyd. Zane smiled and ruffled Lloyd's hair.

 **The episode plays out like normal**

All the ninja had gone to bed, Zane told Wu he'd be back in the morning while Lloyd was at school. Zane walked up to the door of the tiny one-room apartment that he and Lloyd would be living in, it was tiny but big enough for the two of them. Zane knocked on the door in three rapid spurts before unlocking it. A hyperactive Lloyd greeted him.

"Hi, dad! Pizza is on the counter and I left you some soda" said Lloyd quickly as he bounced on the bed

"How much soda have you had?" asked Zane

"Um I don't know?" said Lloyd innocently, Zane had to chuckle. Unknown to either of them, because Zane was a robot and his father had wanted grandchildren, Zane was programmed to be the perfect parent to any child and know exactly what to do in any given moment regarding kids, this program had also overridden the off switch on his humor. Zane knew Lloyd was going to crash soon and didn't want the kid falling off the bed

"Alright kiddo, no more monkeys jumping on the bed, stop before you fall and hurt yourself," said Zane

"But it's fun," said Lloyd

"How about we watch a funny movie instead," said Zane, trying to real in the hyper eight-year-old.

"Ok," said Lloyd bouncing onto the floor and sitting on the bed as Zane put a movie into the DVD player. Within half an hour Lloyd was passed out. Zane chuckled and put the boy into bed, tucking him in and setting the alarm for tomorrow. Zane turned off the movie and put all the leftovers away before checking Lloyd's homework to make sure it was done right and put away into his backpack by the door. Zane got Lloyd's clothes laid out for tomorrow. He'd have to wait with Lloyd for the school bus now because the city wasn't safe for a kid to be alone outside. The next morning Zane had breakfast ready for Lloyd when Lloyd's alarm went off.

"Morning kiddo" greeted Zane as a sleepy-eyed Lloyd sat up in bed

"Hrgnh" grumbled Lloyd

"Breakfast is ready," said Zane setting the plate of pancakes on the small folding table by Lloyd's bed. Lloyd ate quickly then got dressed before brushing his teeth. The two of them waited for the bus outside, Lloyd still half asleep when it came. He got on and sat next to Entity.

"Bye Lloyd, see you later kiddo," said Zane waving to the boy. Zane walked to the roof of the building where shard was waiting for him.

"Come on Shard, we better get to the ninja before they wake up and get suspicious of me not being there," said Zane climbing on. He'd pick Lloyd up from school later and they'd go to a nice secluded spot for Zane to start teaching him, self-defense. Zane got back to the bounty and crawled into one of the hard bunks, sensei right behind him with the gong, waiting for a few minutes for Zane to establish a cover before banging the gong and declaring the ninja would be cleaning today.


	9. Problems

**I'm not dead, and we are getting closer to the good stuff. I own nothing in this. Also, this story is most likely going to stop at season 8. Fluffy ending to this chapter.**

After many arguments, unmeant hurtful words, and punishments from Wu, the ninja had finally agreed to let Lloyd stay on the bounty during missions. After the mailman had accidentally set the last Anacondrai, Pythor, free. Lloyd had been kidnapped from school and Zane was livid. To make matters worse, Wu had brought Garmadon back to aid in the search for Lloyd. The lord of Darkness and Zane got along worse than Garmadon and Kai did. One day Garmadon found Zane pouring of maps and tracing the serpentine movements in a desperate attempt to find Lloyd.

"So mind telling me why you claim to be Lloyd's father?" Asked Garmadon gruffly

"I adopted him, his mother just abandoned him as an infant at Darkleys, you weren't capable of raising him so the courts determined i was allowed to adopt him, I couldn't let a child grow up on the streets like I did after my memory was wiped, Lloyd is my son. Your wife surrendered his custody to the boarding school and you haven't been around so both you and your wife lost your parenting rights, Lloyd is MY son, not yours so I don't even know why Wu brought you here" said an angry Zane. Garmadon was stunned, he had not been expecting that answer, he had just assumed Wu had placed Lloyd in Zane's care temporarily.

"I-I didn't know, I thought my brother put you up to this, I didn't even know Misako had left him" said Garmadon, his voice softer, Zane snorted

" when we first met him he was hell bent on being just like you, it only took a day of me showing him actual care and love that he turned around, he's a child, a very kind child who I love more than anything, know this Garmadon, if you or your wife ever try to take my boy from me, the underworld will seem like a tropical paradise compared to what I'll do to you" said Zane as he pushed his way past the stunned Lord of Darkness.

"Zane, wait" said Garmadon quickly

"What" snapped Zane

"Thank you, thank you for being the father I couldn't be for Lloyd" said Garmadon

"Sensei says the best way to defeat your enemy is to make them your friend, but Lloyd never was our enemy, he was a little boy with no one to show him a better way" said Zane pushing past Garmadon

 **Green Ninja Episode plays out like normal**

Lloyd had no qualms about Garmadon leaving, he now had a father who cared for him and didn't want to put him in danger. Lloyd thought back to when the weapons had reacted to him, Zane had raged at Wu for trying to sacrifice Lloyd's childhood for a battle that Wu's own stupidity had created. Zane had then taken Lloyd aside and said that they would take this development in stride but Lloyd should focus more on being a kid and not the impending battle. As of right now there was no set time limit for the battle and Zane aimed to keep it that way. He also made sure the other ninja would only be handling Lloyd's protection and not his training. Zane still didn't trust the ninja to be good mentor's for Lloyd. Lloyd lay on his bed thinking the last two days over, seeing Zane fight Pythor one on one showed Lloyd just how much Zane's cared for him. Pythor was very likely not going to be a threat for a while after what Zane had done to the purple snake. Giving them time to destroy the fang blades. Lloyd sighed and got out of bed, all this was just too much for him to handle right now, he knew he could go to Zane for anything, unlike his cryptic uncle or the annoying ninjas who still didn't like him. He walked next door to Zane's room.

"Dad?" asked Lloyd, opening the door.

"I figured you'd come," said Zane patting the spot on the bed next to him. Lloyd practically ran into Zane's arms.

"I'm scared," whimpered Lloyd

"I know," soothed Zane holding Lloyd close. The parenting program had completely overridden most of Zane's robotic mannerisms, to the point where it was very easy for him to be mistaken as just a very intelligent person.

"I'm glad you're my dad now, I don't know what I would have done if I had to fight him and he was still my dad," said Lloyd

"Lloyd, I promise, I will do everything I possibly can to delay this battle until you are old enough to face it, and I promise I will do all I can to prepare you for the challenges ahead, and I will do my best to stand beside you when that battle comes. You are not alone," said Zane

"Can I stay with you tonight?" asked Lloyd

"You never have to ask, the answer is always yes," answered Zane. Lloyd snuggled close to the one person in the world who would never hurt him.


End file.
